UAE, Egyptian military production sign protocol to plant 20m palms

CAIRO – 27 March 2017: Egypt’s Ministry of Military Production and the Emirati Jenaan Investment Company signed a protocol Sunday to plant 20 million palm trees in Egypt,

reported Youm7.

The ministry will provide the UAE company with equipment made in the ministry’s factories for the project, Egyptian Minister for Military Production Gen. Mohamed El Assar said in a statement.

Such equipment includes irrigation systems, tractors and agricultural loaders, he added.

The chair of Jenaan’s board of directors, Mohamed Rashid Kalaf Abdulla Al Otaiba, said the company is “very interested” in the project, which was proposed by the Egyptian side.

The Emirati company began investing in Egypt before the 2011 uprising. It acquired 30,000 hectares (one hectare equals 10,000 square meters) in Sharq El Owainat area of Wadi Gedid governorate in 2010,

The National reported

on Nov. 25, 2010.

In November 2013, the company announced it would change its strategy in Egypt by growing wheat to meet local Egyptian demand instead of exporting fodder for livestock UAE upon a piece of “advice” from the Dubai government,

reported Reuters

.

During the period between 2010 and 2013 the company acquired a total of 160,000 hectares in Sharq El Owainat and Upper Egypt’s Minya, Reuters added.